Page 17 of His Fiery Mate

“Oh my god, it was delicious.”

He laughed. “I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.”

“Sounds good. By the way I have both that microbrew and a couple of bottles of wine, as well as the usual stuff.”

“Okay. See you in a bit, and Melisandre, I’m sure I don’t have to say it, but you might want to keep your findings to just the two of us.”

“Agreed.”

She hung up the phone, shaking her head and smiling. It might be way too easy to let this whole fake relationship turn into the real thing.

CHAPTER 7

TANNER

Tanner headed up the stairs to the private entrance. He’d thought about calling Rick and ordering something, but decided he’d rather not answer questions. He also wanted Melisandre to see that while Kodiak might be small, it had some outstanding restaurants. He stopped by his favorite Italian restaurant and picked up shrimp scampi with risotto, fettuccine alfredo, and spaghetti Bolognese. He figured the odds of her liking one or all of them were pretty good.

He knocked lightly and wasn’t expecting her to fling open the door. “Italian? Do I smell Italian?”

“You do. This is from a local place here in town. The menu is always changing. They create it each day depending on what they can get locally, sustainably, and fresh. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I picked what I thought was safe.”

“Is that shrimp scampi and risotto?”

“It is. I also have fettuccine alfredo and spaghetti Bolognese.”

“Which is your favorite… oh god, come on in. I can’t leave you standing out in the cold.”

Tanner laughed and entered her apartment. “This place really is amazing. Does the fog hide the northern lights?”

“Only at first, but I can go out on the balcony, shift, and take off without being seen. Up above the fog, the aurora borealis is spectacular.”

“That must be cool to fly above clouds.”

“It is. I can take you some time, but only if you’ll take me to walk between the worlds.”

“Normally, I’d say no. It’s too dangerous, but my guess is that in a fight between a reaper and a dragon, the dragon wins.”

“The dragon wins, pretty much any time. So, reapers are real and not just some bogeyman?”

“Unfortunately, all too real. So do you want the scampi?”

“Any chance I can talk you into sharing them like a family meal?”

“Absolutely. I’ll get the table set with the food, you choose beer or wine.”

“With Italian, I have a really good red from Tuscany.”

“Perfect.”

They worked together, easily sharing the kitchen and Tanner making himself at home while she got wine glasses and uncorked the wine. “We’ll need to let this breathe for a little bit.”

“You’d know more about that than I would. I feel fancy if you don’t just have to unscrew the top.”

Melisandre laughed. “I’ve got some filtered water in the fridge; why don’t you get us some and we can start while we wait for the wine.”

“You got it.”

They sat down and Melisandre tried a bit of everything. “This is so good,” she said.

---